


What Works

by aj_linguistik



Series: Yujikiri Week 2020 [4]
Category: Sword Art Online (Anime & Manga), ソードアート・オンライン - 川原礫 | Sword Art Online - Kawahara Reki
Genre: Banter, M/M, Opposites Attract, Relationship Advice, Yujikiri Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:15:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23155417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aj_linguistik/pseuds/aj_linguistik
Summary: Written for Yujikiri Week 2020 Day 4 Prompt: Opposite.Tiese and Ronye are curious- what makes a successful relationship work? So, who better to ask than their obviously in-love elite disciples?
Relationships: Eugeo/Kirigaya Kazuto | Kirito
Series: Yujikiri Week 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1663366
Kudos: 78
Collections: YujiKiriweek2020





	What Works

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Alas...this was the hardest day to write for me. I think my head was like..."These prompts suit an art piece better!!!" But I came up with this and I hope it's enjoyable. Enjoy the senpai (attempting) to coach their kouhai.

“What would you say about Kirito and Eugeo-senpai?”

The question came completely out of left field. Tiese hadn’t been expecting it at all. She looked over at their two seniors and frowned. Ronye’s question was rather vague, but she felt she understood the question perfectly. Kirito and Eugeo were discussing something. Kirito seemed mostly unbothered, but Eugeo was quite worked up. Yet both she and Ronye had speculated for some time that they were more than just friends.

“They’re opposites,” Tiese said, fairly certain of that. “But they’re kind of like magnets.”

Ronye tilted her head, then glanced over at the pair and giggled.

“You don’t say?” she said. “Do explain.”

Tiese smiled.

“Do I even need to?” she said, casting the boys a knowing gaze.

The girls both hummed, watching them back and forth with each other like some kind of comedic duo. It was likely the most striking thing about them—how much of a pair of opposites they really were. And it was more than just the dark hair versus the light hair. Sure, their features seemed to match their dynamic, but it reflected in much more than that.

“How difficult is this for you?” Eugeo was saying. “You’re going to start rubbing off on the pages. Next thing you know, Ronye will be climbing through windows.”

Kirito chuckled.

“It _is_ faster that way, Eugeo,” he said.

The way he said Eugeo’s voice made Tiese want to giggle. It was a teasing tone, heavily laced with a loving tenderness for his dorm-mate. Their latest peculiar discussion had to do with Kirito climbing through the balcony window instead of taking the stairs up to their floor and entering through the door.

From how she saw it, Kirito was a bit of a free spirit. He did things on a whim and didn’t really think them through all that much. Eugeo, on the other hand, followed rules, planned things out, and always premeditated no matter what he was doing—even when simply having a conversation with someone. How they got along at all was beyond her.

“Yes, but there’s a door for a reason,” Eugeo said. “It’s dangerous to be climbing that way.”

Kirito shrugged.

“I haven’t fallen yet,” he said.

Eugeo’s eyebrows knit together.

“Yet,” he repeated.

Kirito nodded, then held out a bag in his arms. Tiese had to hold in her breath. She knew that bag. The logo on the side came from the Prancing Deer. They had some of the best baked goods in all of North Centoria. Her mouth started drooling. She had to focus on keeping her cool, though. She had to look composed in front of her seniors. From the side of her eye, she glanced at Ronye. She, too, seemed to have noticed what Kirito was holding.

With a smirk, Kirito reached into the bag and pulled out a snack. He started munching on it. Eugeo looked slightly cross at first, but then his eyes dropped down to the bag to inspect the logo on it. His mouth dropped open, causing him to forget his complaints about Kirito entering through the window again.

“I know that bag!” he said. “Those must be—!”

Kirito laughed rather playfully.

“Aha! So, you noticed!” he said. “A bag filled to the brim with fresh honey pies! If you want one, why don’t you just ask, Eugeo?”

This wasn’t too unfamiliar. Every so often, Kirito would pop up with this sort of thing. It seemed to be one of those things even Eugeo couldn’t oppose. Even if they were butting heads, the two were happily appeased by sharing their favorite snack. He turned to the two pages, smiling.

“Why don’t you two sit down?” he asked. “You can have some, too, if you like!”

Tiese shared a smile with Ronye. They both answered in unison.

“We’d like that very much! Thank you!”

They sat down on the seats across from Eugeo and Kirito, glad to have been invited but fearful that the invitation might be taken back at any moment. As many times as Kirito had brought in snacks and offered them to the pages, he’d never asked them to sit in the room with them. He walked around the table and set the bag in the middle. He waved for them and Eugeo to take pies if they liked. He then plopped down on the couch next to Eugeo and planted a quick peck on his cheek.

“Admit it,” Kirito said. “You think it’s cute that I come through the window.”

Eugeo rolled his eyes and reached over to select a pie.

“Go ahead, Tiese, Ronye,” Eugeo said. “Help yourselves.”

Tiese reached into the bag to select a pie, nodding her head in thanks once more. Ronye reached in after her. They took a deep breath, taking in the fresh scent of the pies for a moment, and then they sank their teeth into the fluffy crust. She almost forgot the others were there for a moment, but Tiese was brought out of her enjoyment when Ronye asked a rather forward question of the two boys.

“If you’re such opposites, how do you get along so well as a couple?”

She almost choked on her treat. Ronye had just outright asked it. She patted her chest to keep herself from coughing too loudly. Kirito and Eugeo awkwardly looked at each other and then turned several shades of red. Ronye immediately perked up, realizing what she’d asked and why everyone was quiet all of the sudden.

“I-I’m sorry! You don’t have to answer that! I’m sorry!” she exclaimed.

Kirito tilted his head and took a bite of his pie. He appeared to be thinking rather intensely about the subject as he chewed. On the other hand, Eugeo had lowered his pie down to his lap and was staring at a point on the floor. This wasn’t a question that they’d been anticipating, but they both had the wheels turning in their brains. It was Eugeo who ended up answering first, despite the fact that Ronye had insisted they didn’t need to.

“I don’t think any one relationship is built on two people being exactly alike,” he said, shrugging. “Kirito and I have bonded over shared experiences and from being traveling companions. Our personalities are different in many ways, yes, but what we share is deeper than what you see on the surface.”

He clutched the pie in his hands tightly, smiling down at the floor.

“I am grateful to Kirito for many things,” he said. “Our differences are nowhere near enough to make me consider being with someone else.”

Ronye relaxed a bit, satisfied that her question hadn’t made her seniors too uncomfortable. She glanced over at Kirito, waiting for a response from him. He’d stuffed the rest of his honey pie into his mouth while Eugeo was talking, effectively avoiding having to start talking immediately. He swallowed, wiped his hands on his front, and then held up one finger.

“It’s like how the ocean always comes back to the sand!” he said.

Eugeo reached over and gave him a smart whack to the shoulder.

“Did you just refer to me as sand?” he asked.

Kirito frowned.

“What’s wrong with sand?” he whined.

Frowning, Eugeo crossed his arms over his chest.

“It’s gritty and sticks to you in unpleasant places!” he said. “It gets very hot in the sun, so when you step on it you want to get off of it!”

Kirito nearly choked on the air.

“I’m not implying I want to step on you and then hop back off!” he defended. “That’s such a weird thing to think! I meant that you’re grounded and always there for me! And dependable! Stuff like that!”

Another playful whack hit his shoulder.

“How did you get dependable from sand?!” Eugeo asked.

Poor Kirito looked like he might wilt on the spot.

“B-because I can always count on it to be by the riverbank…” he muttered.

Eugeo placed his head in his hands and shook it back and forth, clearly ready to be over with this ridiculous metaphor. Even in situations like this, their drastically opposite personality perks were butting heads with one another. It was a surprise the two of them didn’t have more heated spats. This was a bit silly—wouldn’t they fight over more important things? Tiese didn’t want to ask such a question, though. Ronye’s was already asking so much.

“The…the point is,” Kirito said, “that sometimes people who are opposites help to balance the other person out. It’s not that weird at all. Like, Eugeo is much better at sacred arts and helps me on my exams!”

At this, Eugeo rolled his eyes a little. Ronye shifted in her seat.

“So, are you suggesting that the saying that ‘opposites attract’ is true, then?” she asked.

Kirito tilted his head and hummed.

“No, I don’t think that’s quite right,” he said.

Eugeo gave him a funny look. Kirito shifted his weight and then leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. He was staring somewhere on the table. There was a funny look on his face. A smile tugged at the edge of his lips, as if he were hiding some kind of grand truth. Kirito sighed and shook his head.

“I think that in order for two people to click together, they have to be able to support where the other person is weak,” Kirito said. “There are things I can do that Eugeo cannot, and there are things that Eugeo can do that I cannot. It doesn’t matter what those things are—emotional things, physical things, social things. When two people form a relationship, it’s important that they are able to complement each other like that.”

He looked over at Eugeo and placed a hand on his partner’s knee. Eugeo gave him a soft smile. Tiese felt, all of the sudden, as if she were intruding on a rather private moment. The way they looked at each other, completely void of the opposite qualities they possessed, and still knew that they were perfect for one another—it was a level of intimacy that she didn’t fully grasp. But watching them look at one another like that, she knew she wanted that kind of a relationship with someone special one day.

Naturally, the tender moment was quickly gone.

“Oh, you have a crumb right here on your face, Eugeo!” Kirito said.

He then reached all the way over to brush some crumb off of his partner’s face, resulting in a cry of distress from Eugeo. Eugeo tried to push him off, to no avail. Tiese turned her head to look at Ronye, who was shaking her head and sighing. The girls’ eyes met and they both started giggling. Kirito and Eugeo froze, mid-wrestle to blink at the laughing pages.

“You two really are a strange pair,” Tiese finally said, unable to withhold comments any longer.

Kirito and Eugeo blinked at one another, seeming confused.

“Am I strange?” Kirito asked.

Eugeo shook his head.

“I think she means that we are strange together,” he said, trying to clarify.

Humming, Kirito nodded his head and smirked.

“Ah, yes! Our combined power—”

The other shook his head.

“Now what are you going on about, Kirito?” he sighed. “You’re really hopeless sometimes.”

It didn’t really matter what the dynamic was between the two senior students. So long as they worked well together and loved one another, Tiese supposed they could work. Forget all of the nonsense about opposites and differences—Kirito had put their relationship best. They were, more than anything, two human beings who complemented one another well.

As she walked back to her room with Ronye, she reflected on that simple fact. Appearances didn’t contribute anything to this sort of thing. They could argue over little things like using the door or they could have different views about bedtime and behaving. But at the end of the day, when Kirito and Eugeo worked together—be it in sword forms and sacred arts or as a couple tackling much more menial things—they were an inseparable unit.

“Perhaps they aren’t so opposite after all, Ronye,” she mumbled.

In fact, they were probably more alike than they knew. 


End file.
